TH23C:
Observing Ocean Surface Currents From Local to Global Scales

Session ID#: 92103

Session Description:
The Total Surface Current Velocity field, including its divergence, plays a major role in defining the exchanges of energy, momentum, heat and carbon between the ocean and atmosphere, and thus directly influences the state of the ocean and climate. The current vorticity is another key dynamical parameter of ocean circulation. In addition, the near-surface transport of plastics or plankton are of great interest for defining the contamination and connectivity of ecosystems. For these reasons the Total Surface Current Velocity is an Essential Climate Variable, but it is only monitored in a few coastal areas using HF radars.  Away from coats, it is estimated more or less directly from satellite measurements of sea surface height and surface roughness, and from a sparse array of near-surface drifters. This town hall will discuss plans to extend surface current measurements using satellite and airborne instruments, and their possible applications.
Co-Sponsor(s):
  • AI - Air-Sea Interactions
  • IS - Ocean Observatories, Instrumentation and Sensing Technologies
  • PI - Physical-Biological Interactions
  • PS - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Smaller
Primary Contact:  Fabrice Ardhuin, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Oceanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), UMR6523 CNRS/IFREMER/IRD/UBO, Paris Cedex 16, France
Presenters:  Ernesto Rodriguez, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, Christine Gommenginger, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, J. Thomas Farrar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst, Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole, United States, Sophie E Cravatte, LEGOS, Université de Toulouse, (IRD, CNES, CNRS, UPS), Toulouse, France, Prof. Sarah T Gille, PhD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, United States and Matthew Carrier, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Ocean Dynamics and Prediction, Stennis Space Center, United States

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